Amazing as always John and when it comes to girls Katie Rice does it again.I loved seeing this video at the show..especially the part where cigarettes uses animal intestines as a necklace for the 1st girl.These shots are yet another example of how great animation can be freeze framed alomst anywhere and be pleasing as a stand alone image.

Oh yeah. I consider you to be one of the best cartoon directors since bob clampett and Tex Avery exaggerated everything to the limit and then you came along and extended that limit! The humor in the timing and staggers of your cartoons can not ever ever be topped. You have set the rebar for animation at its pinnacle.

To rodney and the others asking about "twins", check out Thad's incredible blog:

http://classicanimation.blogspot.com

There's a post on there called "They Don't Know Jack (Rabbit)" and compare Scribner's Bugs to Muse's Tom. Look how much more exciting Bugs' movements are!

Here's a definition of "twins":

"Mirroring the position the face, arms, or legs on both sides of the body. This results in a wooden, unnatural presentation. Body movement is rarely symmetrical, but involves overall balancing of posture or reactions."

Culhane mentions this in his book "Animation: From Script to Screen" I believe. That particular definition was pulled off of this site:

Scribner and Muse were two completely different animators, each perfect for the characters they worked on. Scribner's style would have been too intense for a Tom and Jerry cartoon, and in my opinion they are the most beautiful cartoons ever made. If you're seriously ripping apart that scene from Heavenly Puss, which is perhaps the most incredible, emotional scene ever done in a Tom and Jerry cartoon, then I really think you should re-title this blog The Most Ridiculous Nit-Picking Festival of All Time.

If you could, let me know Ed's information so we can pay him a visit (if he is willing to have guests, of coarse). Thanks again for everything.

By the way, this cartoon was great. They did a great job on not making it look flash. I see his eyes are not colored consistantly through the 4 images. Intentional or did someone's ass get canned for that?

This was one of the cartoons I enjoyed the most in the SF shows. I loved the reference to the gag in BIMBO'S INITIATION when the early "dog ears" Betty Boop bounces her behind like a basketball. Made me laugh and think of Clampett's THE HEP CAT.

While I see what you're saying, it still looks to me like there's a lot of emotion in that scene. I always felt that the 'twins' phenomenon was due to budget restraints....something that Frank Thomas would know nothing about, and that Culhane willingly embraced.

I always felt that the 'twins' phenomenon was due to budget restraints....something that Frank Thomas would know nothing about

MGM didn't have much budget contraints, they invested a lot of money in each cartoon, especially Tom and Jerry. There may be "twins" in some of Muse's work but he's still an incredible animator, check out Thad's post of the Bodyguard, the final scene is Muse.

In Chuck Jones' second autobiography Chuck Re-Ducks, he states that the human face isn't twinned naturally either. He even added that if you did use a mirror to twin your face, you'd look like a psychopathic killer. So, if Chuck were alive and saw this blog, he would concur with John and Frank Thomas.

Back to the Wierd Al video. What parts did Marlo work on? Are there examples up on this post right now? Could Marlo post some shots from her scenes up on her blog? I think it would be interesting to see how her style has adapted to animation. B)

Craig, that's a 3/4 turn so there's no way it can be twinned. Twins mostly occur when a character is either facing straight forward or straight backward.

For instance, check out the The End card of Bugs from What's Cooking, Doc? (by Bob Clampett c. 1944). At first glance it may look twinned. But, if you study it a bit you'll see that there's a definite difference in both sides of the ears, eyes, mouth, shoulders, tail fur, legs, and even the negative space. That's how you untwin a drawing.

I didn't see any emotion in it. It's the same expression all through the scene, and one right off the model sheet.

In Tom, I see panic, fury, fear, intense fear, wonder, desperation, humility, elation, relief, love, appreciation, & affection. I can't say that they're all taken from the model sheet, but I think off-model scenes were really handled by Irv Spence.

Get mad at Frank Thomas for not liking twins if you like them.

I'm not mad, but I think it's gotten a bit silly that you're seemingly determined to point out the flaws (real or imaginary) in almost everyone else's animation. If a character is pleading with another character or waving his hands in the air, I think it's absurd to call that using "twins" because the arms/hands are in the same positions.

To me it looks like the characters are wooden puppets and all their joints are linked together by invisible wires.

I've always thought that Tom and Jerry has the most solid animation out of any other cartoons. They seem to have weight, unlike other characters who seem to sort of just float around.